God Wants to Be Your One Desire

"Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." (Psalm 73:25)

Imagine that your grandmother has asked you to clean out her attic. You walk up to the top of the stairs and begin wading through old boxes and dusty furniture. You wonder what you should clean first.

Looking to your left, you see an antique trunk sitting in the corner. You walk over, lift the top, and peer inside. There, sitting on the bottom of the trunk, is an old brass oil lamp. You pick it up and gently rub the dust away.

POOF!!!!!

All of a sudden, a genie pops out of the lamp! With a deep, booming voice, he says, "Tell me your one wish and I shall make it come true!" What would you wish for? What one thing do you desire most? If you could have anything in the world, what would you ask for?

The writer of Psalm 73 wrote that his greatest desire in life was God. The psalmist realized that God is everything that he needed--light, salvation, strength, protection, comfort, and joy. There is nothing he desires more than God. The psalmist looked around at what others have--wealth, possessions, or friends--and realized that without God, all of those things are as twigs burning in a fire.

When you want something more than God, you are worshipping an idol. Now, you probably do not have a golden statue in your house that you bow down to, but when you want or love something more than God, it is just as though you are bowing down to it and saying, "you are my god." The first commandment says that you should put nothing in front of God (Exodus 20:3). Instead, you are to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind (Deuteronomy 6:5).

What kinds of things are you tempted to put in front of God – TV, clothes, music, XBox, Playstation3, sports, shopping? You need to think about these things and ask God to take away those idols in your life so that He is your only desire. You increase your desire for God by reading His Word to learn more about Him and become more like Him. The more you know and learn about God, the more He will be your one desire. You want to be able to say with the psalmist, "there is nothing I want more than to know and love God."

You must desire God more than anything!

My Response: » Do I need to ask God's forgiveness for wanting something else more than Him? » What do I put in front of God? » What can I do to increase my desire for God?

J Gresham Machen

"The more we know of God, the more unreservedly we will trust him.”

John Gresham Machen was born into a wealthy, well-known family on July 28, 1881. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a writer, which meant John had every ability to “do something important” with his life. Woodrow Wilson, the twenty-eighth President of the United States, was a personal friend of the Machen family.

But God had even higher, better plans for J. Gresham Machen than just making him a “wealthy man.” God chose Machen to serve Him – making this service the “something important” Machen chose to do with his life. He studied the Bible, and by age 12, he had already gained more knowledge of Scripture than many men have learned when they finish seminary studies. Machen continued to grow up, and he attended the best schools in the world to learn as much as he could about God and the Bible.

In 1914, Machen was ordained to preach. Soon he found himself engaged in one of the most important battles in Christian history. He was not involved in a physical war – although World War I had begun. Rather, he was involved in the battle over the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. Machen opposed the worldly religions and opinions of that day and age, ungodly systems of teaching that taught that people did not need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in order to be Christians. Machen also opposed so-called Christians who were living in known sin and acting just like unsaved people.

Machen started Westminster Seminary (in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). Even though he was offered many important jobs that could have made him very popular, he refused them because those positions would not have helped him to honor Jesus Christ. He chose instead to defend the faith and to do what he believed was right – no matter what!

How old do you need to be before you really start studying the Bible? Machen believed children were not too young. He was only 12, after all, when God began to use him and his knowledge of Bible teachings in a wonderful way! It is never too early for you to begin learning God’s truth – and you are going to need a good foundation of His truth if you want to be strong enough to fight spiritual battles and stay faithful when false teaching comes up against God!

Question & Answer

Can we really know God without the message He's given in the Bible?

No, we cannot. Romans 10:17 – "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." [In other words, we cannot know God unless we put our faith in His Word.]

BIG Christian Word

Salvation - (sal-va'shun)

Salvation is the deliverance from sin and from the penalties of sin. The word "salvation" was used in the book of Genesis as Jacob was talking to his sons. In Genesis 49:18, Jacob says, "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord." (Acts 4:12) "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name (Jesus) under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."